Springfield News

  • A sign urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to keep negotiating on a contract with AFSCME is displayed in the window of the union's Springfield office on February 23, 2017 — the same day the union authorized a strike, which never ended up happening.


    After dedicating his first full day on the job to repairing the damage caused by former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration with state labor unions, Gov. JB Pritzker late Thursday asked for more time to decide his administration’s next step in a long-running lawsuit.
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  • Gov. JB Pritzker signs an executive order on immigration spending at an Aurora immigrant welcoming center on Thursday. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday ordered a review of state spending on immigrant services, alleging there was reason to believe former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration had intentionally held back funds earmarked to help immigrants. Meanwhile, a new report from Columbia University found that Black “emerging adults” are “incarcerated at a rate 9.4 times greater than their white peers in Illinois.” The state has also fined 117 nursing homes for violations during the last three months of 2018, the Department of Public Health said Thursday.
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  • Gov. JB Pritzker talks to reporters in Springfield on Wednesday. [BlueRoomStream]
    Gov. JB Pritzker’s ninth full day on the job included signing yet another executive order designed to set the stage for his progressive vision for the state and rebuke of President Donald Trump. At the same time, Pritzker’s administration is also dealing with its first crisis as a resident of the Veterans’ Home in Manteno has died after contracting Legionnaires’ Disease.
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  • The Illinois Supreme Court building in Springfield on Nov. 29, 2018. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    A six-year battle against a Chicago ordinance targeted at food trucks is on its last legs as the Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case that food truck owners have already lost twice.
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  • The State Board of Elections unanimously voted Tuesday to end Illinois’ participation in the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, a system designed to prevent alleged voter fraud, and one that has grabbed headlines in recent years, accused of putting voters’ data and voter eligibility at risk.
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  • New State Reps. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) and Rabbi Mark Kalish (D-Chicago) were appointed and sworn in over the weekend.


    The Illinois House has two new members as of this weekend who were appointed to replace former House members Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago), who is now serving in Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration, and  Lou Lang (D-Skokie), who left the General Assembly earlier this month to join statehouse veteran Nancy Kimme’s lobbying firm.
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  • Gov. JB Pritzker signs two executive orders and a bill related to labor on his first day in office. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    One of Gov. JB Pritzker’s first official actions in office last week — the announcement that AFSCME Council 31 members would soon be put back on the appropriate “pay steps” that had been frozen since the summer of 2015 — was designed to send a deliberate message to the public employee unions that had so often come under attack during former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s four years in office.
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  • Freshly inaugurated Gov. JB Pritzker is set to sign yet another executive order on Friday — his fourth of the week — after signing the Gun Dealer Licensing Act in Chicago on Thursday.
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  • The replacement for newly minted Deputy Gov. Christian Mitchell, elected in 2013, will be chosen Friday afternoon, completing the trio of new leaders for the Hyde Park area.

    Christian Mitchell


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  • The Illinois Supreme Court building in Springfield on Nov. 29, 2018. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line]
    The Illinois Supreme Court this week returned to Springfield for its January oral argument session, which includes major cases on de facto life sentences for teenage offenders, a Chicago ordinance on food trucks and whether regulating stun guns and tasers under Illinois’ concealed carry law violates the Second Amendment.

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